Why You Can Trust CNET Amazon is bringing support for Matter and Thread to Echo and Eero devices
The company is also taking a seat on Thread's board of directors, "to help shape the future of this key Matter protocol."
- 10 years product testing experience with the CNET Home team
Matter is an up-and-coming IP-based smart home protocol that promises to act as a common language for devices from different manufacturers. It already claims support from all of the biggest names in the connected home, including Apple, Google and Amazon, among others. Now, Amazon is pushing in more of its chips by promising to bring Matter support to millions of Echo and Eero devices ahead of the standard's scheduled launch in 2022.
That Matter support will make use of Thread, a separate protocol that allows developers to create low-power mesh connections between devices. A number of Eero home networking devices already make use of Thread and act as "border routers" capable of relaying those Thread signals -- next year, they'll use those Thread connections to pass Matter signals between devices, too.
Along with the Eero lineup of mesh routers, the spherical, fourth-gen Amazon Echo will support Matter in time for the new standard's launch next year. Additional Echo devices will follow suit.
"All Eero Pro, Eero Beacon, Eero Pro 6, and Eero 6 devices already act as border routers, and they will gain Matter over Thread support alongside Echo (4th Gen) in time for Matter's SDK release next year," wrote Gabe Kassel, a principal product manager with Amazon in a blog post announcing the news. "Support for additional Echo devices is expected to follow later."
In addition, Amazon is announcing that it's taking a seat on the Thread Group's board of directors, with a stated goal of shaping the future of the Matter protocol.
"As a board member, we are excited to provide thought leadership and advocacy for Thread as a standard, contribute to ongoing open-source development, and increase the number of Thread border routers," Kassel writes.
Originally slated to debut this fall, the launch of Matter's software development kit was pushed to 2022 earlier in the summer. Other members of Matter's connectivity alliance include Comcast, Samsung, Kroger, Ikea, Huawei, Signify, SmartThings and Assa Abloy.